All posts in category Happiness

Weighed in again today. The pounds are up a little bit to 138.4 (lowest this month was 137.2), but the body fat% is holding at 31. I also measured since I do that monthly. I am down overall 1 inch, coming from my lower body, and since the first of the year I am down 8.5 inches.

I haven’t been really caring too much about what I ate this week, and I know I was overeating ice cream and treats, big time. I don’t have a good reason, my period did come and that was part of it but I was really overdoing it for whatever reason. I think I have moved past that! We also went camping and while I tried to just stick to 3-4 meals, the overeating treats happened there too. Oh well. I am moving on!! Not going to dwell on it, just going to try and do better. The past few days have been much better too.

As I said we went camping in the Uintas at Mirror Lake this weekend, so my workouts didn’t really happen as planned. I wanted to do more running while up there but it just wasn’t happening this time. I’ve done 3+ mile runs there before, but the altitude wasn’t letting me this time. So I didn’t push it! We mostly fished and just relaxed.

Sunday

I went for a 3 mile run before we started packing up to go. I went on the parkway trail for a quick in and out. I did 3.29 in 29:51 – making for a 9:04 pace!!

Monday

I did a loop around the lake. I wanted to do more but I had gotten a late start and I didn’t want to keep the family waiting too long for breakfast. I thought it was longer around the lake, honestly! I ran for about 20 minutes and 1.5 miles. It was tough.

Thursday

TTBA phase 2, workout #5. I should have done weights on Monday and Tuesday, so it was extra hard after taking those days off again.

Friday

Workout #6. I have been taking a stab at TRX pushups and I am SO sore two days later!! I totally suck at them but I’m going to keep doing it. This one also includes a lot of pull-ups. I am using two different assistance bands, so I do them with the thinner band until I can’t anymore and then switch back to the thicker one. I got about half of them in with the thinner band. I feel like I am regressing here. Oh well.

That’s all she wrote. I skipped 2 days this week, but I wasn’t just sitting around so who cares? Camping is full of lifting and doing. I always feel worn out from it too lol And it was worth skipping workouts :) I’ll share some pictures in my next post!

Friday was my final workout in phase 1 of Train to be Awesome!! I’m well on my way to completing the whole program! I started it back in April, took a month off due to being sick and then being really fatigued in May, started back up in June and I am finally done now. Now I will do a deload week and then get back at it, starting phase 2. It will be fun to switch up exercises. I was starting to get a little bored. So phase 2 will probably take me another 8 weeks and then I retest markers to see how much progress I made.

It’s kind of funny though, I was so excited to be done, and then really soon after I was over it. Kind of a let down lol. No big fanfare, just time to move on. It IS a big deal though, seeing how I have never finished any program or even part of a program before. I always just quit. So I am pretty proud of myself for sticking with it this long. I still have phase 2 to go, and then I am going to do the next part which is actually a separate part of the program. So after phase 2 I will have really finished a workout program!!

I also weighed in today. I’m at 137.2 and 31.5% body fat. That’s down 2.4 pounds and .5% body fat from last week! Just to show how slow the body fat% moves, it had been 32 for more than a month with no change. I’m getting really close to getting it under 30% now! It will take a few more months, I’m sure, but that is my next goal.

So for the whole year so far I am down 15 pounds and 6% body fat. I won’t measure until the beginning of August so I don’t know about that part, but I imagine I will only be down another inch or so (currently sitting at -7.5).

I keep thinking I would like to work more on the lean habits. Eating 3-4 meals, mastering hunger, eating just enough. But what I am doing right now seems to be working, so I guess I don’t have that much motivation to change lol. I am not eating all day long, and I do try to just eat meals while waiting for hunger. It just always feels like my meals are stretched out at work, and then I have a big dinner with treats every night. Last night I skipped dinner and just went right for the ice cream and m&m’s! Well, after a big bowl of cereal with milk. It was a stressful (and fun) Free Slurpee Day. Anyway about the habits, I guess I will keep trying but not stress about it. The point is to wait for hunger and then eat, without snacking and I am mostly doing that. I could try harder though. I’ll put a little more focus into it this week and see what happens.

Today I was planning on going for a run and then going to work for just a little while, but the run doesn’t sound that great. I’m tired!! It’s been a long week, month, whatever. Maybe I will and maybe I won’t.

Last post March 3rd! Yes, I’m a little behind. I just don’t know what to do with this blog anymore. And I know that budget posts are not that exciting :lol: I feel pretty busy and when I think about blogging, half of the time I don’t know what to say, and if I say it who will care anyway?!

I have been busy. Work is slightly starting to pick up, but not enough for me to get excited at all about it. My days are just filled with working out, work, and then dinner and some web-surfing.

I did read a book though! I haven’t read an actual book in forever. It was called Black Dog Summer by Miranda Sherry and I quite enjoyed it. I picked up another from the library and started it, but I realized it was last in a big series – 10 books – so I quit reading it after 2 chapters. So next time I go to the library I’ll get another book, or read one here that I haven’t yet.

Active life is still the same. I am going to do the last workout of the Beginner Blast-off in Train to be Awesome today! Then I will do a reload week and then get on with the next phase. I’ve been trying to run on days when I’m not lifting and that’s going well too. I’m just doing lower miles, kind of following a 15k training plan. I’m not getting injured, well, I did fall yesterday morning but I think I’m okay!

And of course there is the weight loss department. I am keeping track of stuff but not weighing/checking in very often. In March I did weigh more than I wanted to and I realized I didn’t really like it. So in April I’m not going to weigh or measure at all. It will be a little hard, but I’ve made up my mind and so that’s that. Anyway, the March results were pretty good. I lost 2.6 pounds, 1% body fat (according to my scale), and .5 inches. Not bad for eating what I want, which includes ice cream, pizza, frozen yogurt, you name it. I’ve been eating it. And I’m not counting a thing or excluding anything. It’s really brainless, and I love that part. Am I losing very slowly? Sure am. This year so far I am down about 7 pounds. In 3 months that doesn’t sound like a lot. But I’ll repeat myself and say that I am absolutely sure that this time I am truly working on making sustainable habit changes, and this slow weight loss is going to stick! The only downside is that it is so easy, that that in itself makes it harder than anything I’ve ever done :lol: It is always more exciting to start some stupid new diet plan or count calories and calculate everything I will do. Now I just eat I what I want and move my body. There is no calorie goal, no burn goal, not even a weight goal or an end date. I’m just changing my life, for life, and it is hard to give the energy I was using up on all of that crap to something else. It is definitely a process.

With health and stuff. I am still back and forth on the weighing thing, but for now I guess I don’t really care if I do or don’t. I am trying to not weigh most days. But I am going to for sure check in at the beginning of the month, with weight and measurements and pictures. So, since December 1st I am down 2.75 inches, and since January 1st I am down 4.6 pounds. That averages out to be .5 pounds per week. Pretty much what I was planning on. Is it painfully slow sometimes? Yes! But, I am confident that this time around I am going to be able to keep it off.

Workouts have been good. Today I finished workout #15 of 24 from Train to be Awesome. Only 9 more left! I could probably keep going with the beginner program, but I really just want to move on to something different, not that I’m bored or not liking it. I do like it. The workouts are taking me about 1 hour and 10 minutes, including warm up time. I take as much rest as I need and do 1-2 warm up sets. Today I was able to squat with 90# on the machine, and I did quite a few pull-ups with one knee in the resistance band. I’ve also been trying barbell hip thrusts, not much on the bar, only 30#. I tried that today and I think I can work my way up pretty quickly.

I missed being on a running schedule so I’m going to try a 10k training program. It goes for 10 weeks and has minimal mileage so I don’t think it will interfere with strength training. I’ll just do the runs on my off days from weights. I do my first 2 mile run tomorrow morning. We are supposed to get a big storm tonight so I hope it doesn’t ice all over!

So yeah, losing a little fat, gaining a little muscle (hopefully :lol), all while doing my best to chill out and eating exactly what I want to. Including ice cream, almost daily. Also chocolate, pizza, bread every day – and veggies, fruit, fish, nuts. Nothing is off limits, I’m just eating when I’m hungry and trying not to eat too much. Eating what I really want keeps me from feeling deprived or like I need to rebel, so I don’t end up overdosing on m&ms. Novel idea.

I have stopped weighing every day, or even doing a weekly weigh-in. I hope to someday move away from weighing at all, I think? I’m not sure. For now I’m just doing it when I really want to. I have started taking pictures and measuring too. Since my goal is more of a recomp thing, I figure that pictures and measurements will help to see progress more than weighing. Last time I weighed I was down a pound in 13 days or something. And my measurements were down half an inch. I keep telling myself I want to go slow, and it is working. Working on my impatient brain is the real trick here. That’s what usually leads me to last chance eating/drinking before I start my next new plan! And then fail again :lol: SO do not want to do that again.

Also, still booze free. I wanted January to be over so badly, and now it is. I can count one month done instead of days, which seems easier because, less counting. I still don’t feel amazingly awesome and like life is perfect, but that may never happen. I am glad I’m not drinking.

I’ve been doing the Train to be Awesome workout, though I missed a couple of days last week due to working too freaking much and zero desire to do more than that! I am back at it this week though. Today I am doing workout #6, only 18 more to go.

I am still off and on with the Spanish. Actually I was doing pretty well logging into Dueling every day until I started working too much. I just need to start logging in again. But where I left off is so confusing! It is past tense stuff and I just don’t get it yet.

No crafting to speak of, well except in the kitchen. I’m always busy doing something in there! But I haven’t been knitting or sewing or anything. I’m thinking about it though, and that’s a step, right?

I turned 38 today, this is getting way too close to 40! It’s really weird thinking that I am that old. I don’t feel that old!

We celebrated my birthday last night. I made this really good bolognese, these pepperoni garlic knots, and my daughter made a delicious coconut cake. I don’t think I have ever had coconut cake before last night, but it is definitely a winner!! It was all so yummy.

Pepperoni garlic knots

Coconut cake

Layers

And that is really all there is to say about that.

I am late on the budget post, but honestly we went way over. Embarrassingly so. I will post it anyway, and try to recover in the next month – it may take that long!!

We are 10 days into the new year, so I’m checking in with my goals and weighing in. On January 1st I weighed in at 152.2 and 37.5% body fat (yikes). Today I am 150.4 and 36%. So down 1.8 pounds and 1.5% body fat. Not bad! I have truly been eating what I want, and really trying to just eat when I’m hungry. Some days are better than others. I’ve been eating ice cream for dessert almost every day, although today it was 1 1/2 chocolate gluten free cupcakes made by M. Gluten free only because K has given up wheat and she wanted to make something for all of us. They were still very tasty! I made a big pot of chicken breast and white beans mid-week and I’ve eaten those 4 days in a row. Right now I almost don’t even care what I eat, just trying to do mostly balanced meals, though I’m kind of slacking on vegetables. So I am going to try and eat more veg. Need to make another big salad to have at the ready, and just cook a veg or two with dinner no matter what.

One problem I’ve had the last few days is eating too late in the afternoon, making me not really hungry at dinner time. I’ve eaten anyway, something small, but I’d like to not wait so long so that I can be hungry for and enjoy dinner more.

I also exercised yesterday for the first time in weeks! I got on the treadmill in the morning and warmed up with walking for 5 minutes and then alternated running at 5 mph for about 3 minutes with walking for 2 minutes. I finished with 5 minutes of walking for a total of 45 minutes. It felt good. So I will do it more often. As part of listening to my body, I’m just going to do what I feel like. I’m not going to do some set schedule or training program (unless I want to!), just going to do what feels good and not too overwhelming. Hopefully I will avoid burnout that way.

In other goals, I have been doing some knitting but not much else. I need to break out the sewing machine and do something with that. I have projects to finish and some to just share pictures of. I could be doing more, so I’m going to aim for just 10 minutes a day of some kind of crafting.

I haven’t been doing any Spanish lessons :( I just need to get going on it. I will get some done today, and try to reach my goal for points every day.

Last but not least, still not drinking. It’s only been 10 days but a couple of them have been really long ones :lol: Not that I’m counting down really, but only 355 more to go.

I have been ‘wasting’ a lot of time on Pinterest and Food52 lately! It isn’t really wasting time, of course. I’ve been googling food blogs of all different kinds of cuisine, and have added quite a few yummy sounding and looking indian and colombian dishes on my Pinterest.

I also just re-discovered Food52. I had heard of it before but never really spent too much time on it. Yesterday I signed up and starting saving away recipes and articles. The Dinner vs. Child column is pretty funny to read, and this one on kid’s lunches is pretty interesting, although I’m pretty sure my kid would never give up her ham sandwiches and eat like that. It all inspires me to make our meals a little more interesting and to get more variety in, try new things. Even if the rest of the people in the house aren’t adventurous I will do it for me :D

Just trying to catch up with some knits that never quite made it to the blog, or even Ravelry!

This one is a slouchy beret made from my own handspun. More details on Ravelry, made way back in 2011.

This one is the Hedgehog hat from Knitty.com, made from Noro Kureyon in a really different colorway. It turned out to be quite a hat! I made this one in December 2013.

The last one is another from my handspun yarn, the pattern is Sugar Maple Hat. Apparently I finished knitting it in just one day! I started it on the 23rd and finished it Christmas Eve. I really like it.